REDMOND, Wash., July 28, 2011 – Nintendo of America today announced plans to drop the suggested retail price of its portable Nintendo 3DS™ system to $169.99 in the United States, as new games based on some of the world's most beloved video game franchises head to the system. The new price, down from the suggested launch price of $249.99 and effective Aug. 12, makes an outstanding value even better and sets up a strong holiday season for the system.

"For anyone who was on the fence about buying a Nintendo 3DS, this is a huge motivation to buy now," said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. "We are giving shoppers every incentive to pick up a Nintendo 3DS, from an amazing new price to a rapid-fire succession of great games."

Nintendo 3DS has the strongest software lineup of any video game system this holiday season and the new price now opens up the glasses-free 3D experience to many more consumers. Building on the popularity of The Legend of Zelda™: Ocarina of Time™ 3D, which launched June 19, the upcoming game calendar is a Who's Who of iconic video game franchises. Star Fox 64™ 3D arrives on Sept. 9, followed by Super Mario™ 3D Land in November, Mario Kart™ 7 in December and Kid Icarus™: Uprising during the holiday season.

In addition to great games, Nintendo 3DS has a host of attractive features* that make it the must-have video game system this season:

The new Nintendo Video™ service automatically delivers short 3D videos from the worlds of music, comedy, animation and Hollywood.

A free application allows Netflix members with unlimited streaming plans to instantly watch TV episodes and movies streaming from Netflix.

The Nintendo eShop is a digital store for Nintendo 3DS owners that provides access to a wide variety of downloadable content, such as original 3D software, classic games that have been re-mastered in 3D called 3D Classics, Game Boy™ and Game Boy Color "Virtual Console" games in their original 2D glory, and more than 350 Nintendo DSiWare™ games. Visitors can also view video game trailers, screen shots and product information for games, including those available at retail locations.

Since Nintendo 3DS launched in the United States on March 27, more than 830,000 people in the U.S. alone have purchased one to enjoy 3D visuals without the need for special glasses. These Nintendo 3DS owners represent some of Nintendo's most loyal customers, and Nintendo is rewarding them for getting in on the action early with 20 free downloadable games from the Nintendo eShop.

These free games are available to anyone who owns a Nintendo 3DS system and uses a wireless broadband Internet signal to connect to the Nintendo eShop at least once before 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Aug. 11. These users will automatically be registered in the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador program. The program contains two elements:

Starting Sept. 1, Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors will be able to download 10 NES™ Virtual Console™ games at no charge and before they are available in the Nintendo eShop to the general public. These games, including Super Mario Bros.™, Donkey Kong Jr.™, Balloon Fight™, Ice Climber™ and The Legend of Zelda™, are slated to become paid downloadable games, but Ambassadors get them early for free. Once the paid versions of the games are posted to the Nintendo eShop later in the year, the updated versions will be available to Ambassadors for download at no cost.

By the end of 2011, Nintendo will provide Ambassadors with 10 Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games. These include games like Yoshi's Island™: Super Mario™ Advance 3, Mario Kart™: Super Circuit, Metroid™ Fusion, WarioWare™, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ and Mario vs. Donkey Kong™. These games will be available exclusively to Ambassadors, and Nintendo currently has no plans to make these 10 games available to the general public on the Nintendo 3DS in the future.

More details about this program will be announced in the future.

Remember that Nintendo 3DS features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other features, visit http://www.nintendo.com/3ds.

Bloomberg Japan reports today that the new 3DS price point means Nintendo will incur a loss on every system sold. At a press conference in Osaka today, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata justified this by saying that such major moves were necessary in order to improve fiscal performance next year and beyond.

Nintendo slashed the price of the 3DS earlier today worldwide. In Japan, the system was cut from its launch price of ¥25,000 to ¥15,000. Early adopters who paid the initial price will be given access to 20 free Famicom (NES) and Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games, some exclusively.

In addition to the price cut, Nintendo announced lowered earnings targets for the year. SMBC senior analyst Eiji Maeda told Bloomberg that 40% of the lowered revision was due to the 3DS price cut. Securities Japan analyst Masayuki Ohtani expressed surprise at how quick the price cut came.

Ohtani also suggested that investors might rush to sell Nintendo stock, although he doesn't believe the stock will drop below 10,000 yen. Nintendo stock ended the day at 14,000 yen, up 0.1% from the day prior. On the 27th, one day before the price cut and earnings report announcements, the stock had temporarily dropped to 13,770 yen, its lowest point since December 2005.

Nintendo usually holds a Tokyo earnings briefing the day after its Osaka earnings briefings. It's likely that will get more information there.

Without reading a third of what was posted I have an observation. Nintendo in the past has always had the highest profit depth. by that I mean lots of first party games, profits on hardware, lots of hardware sold, and typically high percentages on third party games.

Nintendo seems to be changing a little however. Be it because they have to or because they've learned where more profit lies. They seem more likely to do like the other 2 and sell consoles at a loss or at least lower profit to help hit market saturation points.

Sega and Atari both flirted with high price systems. Perhaps Nintendo is making sure they don't follow suit. man I remeber when Sega hardware folded. Exciting times. Their games hit the competition in a matter or weeks and we were all happy. Of course I also had to walk to school in the snow everyday and it was uphill both ways. It didn't take a lot to make you happier in those days. that was before they invented fire and we heated the house by keeping a lot of cats.

-Marshall-
Nun sacciu, nun vidi, nun ceru e si ceru durmiv.I know nothing, I see nothing, I wasn't there,
and if I was there, I was asleep.

So, I guess the 3DS is going to be The Virtual Boy of 2011, huh. I have a friend who bought a 3DS at the launch & I’ve borrowed it a few times & always turn down the “3D” setting to zero. Don’t know if it’s just my inferior vision, but the 3D always strains my eyes & makes it more frustrating to play the games.

mkiker2089 wrote: It didn't take a lot to make you happier in those days. that was before they invented fire and we heated the house by keeping a lot of cats.

Those were the days. We couldn’t find any alley cats, so my family resorted to burning all my old Gamepro magazines. For some reason, I never missed them.

There are new studies that seem to point out that 3d is as dangerous as the alarmists have been saying. I don't understand the science but it seems that when watching 3d your eyes are shifting focus constantly from the screen where it knows the image really is to the area where it looks like the image is coming from. The refocusing 60 times or more a second (they didn't say how fast the eyes refocus but since it's not perceptible it has to be fast) causes eye strain, headaches, temporary loss of real world depth perception and a few other things.

However even with that I still think the 3ds isn't dead. I think Nintendo did damage themselves by changing the hand held too much. The DSi was just cosmetic changes. As long as the fundamental software is the same you don''t fragment the market. The XL is where things started getting iffy. The core software was the same but suddenly the games looked worse because the unit didn't upscale properly or the games were so poorly written that there was too little to work with. the the DSi and 3ds came out. What's next 3dsi. Once they changed the hardware with the XL people lost confidence in them. No one wants to buy a system that will be obsolete.

-Marshall-
Nun sacciu, nun vidi, nun ceru e si ceru durmiv.I know nothing, I see nothing, I wasn't there,
and if I was there, I was asleep.